THE CAPITALIST PRESS.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1926, Page 4

THE CAPITALIST PRESS.

Mr A. P. Herbert has very shrewdly summed up the value of the Press to the Labour party in Ids review in London “ Punch ” of one of the results of the general strike in Great Britain. He says:—“ AVell. there is one good thing the strike has done. AVitli all due deference to the T.U.C.. no one is going tq persuade me that this (the strike way) is a hotter way of distributing news than by the poor old " ( a pita list Press.’ .1 wonder il even the T.U.U. are not beginning to regret tho extinction of the Press. It is conceivable that they may even in the end convict themselves of the tiniest ingratitude. For where, after all, would the T.U.U. he if it was not. for the I capitalist Press? The T.U.U. could scarcely have existed. AA ho raised the ' Labour party to power, who made their leaders famous, printed their speeches, spread abroad their pronouncements ami grievances and opinions with as much care as was given to the utterances of the Prime Alinister —-and often more p The capitalist Press. .Ho,v would even Air Thomas’s genial personality have found its way into e\oiy home in the country? How much would smaller men liaCc become household words, but by the efforts of the capitalist Press? AA’liy. even on this issue. 1 suppose half the London Press were more favourable to the miners’ case than not. As for the others, what, at the worst, are a few partisan leading articles to set against the solid services that every newspaper has rendered to Labour by simply circulating the news? It is the news that counts in the long run. not leading articles: and at the end of all this f fancy there will be some on the T.U.U. wlio will think more tenderly of the capitalist Press than they did before.”